One interesting bit of news that came out of the Space Access ‘08 conference in Phoenix involved efforts by Florida to lure Orbital Sciences’ COTS program away from Virginia.
NASA recently awarded the Dulles, Virginia-based company with a $170 million contract to develop commercial transport to the International Space Station under its COTS initiative. Orbital Sciences will operate out of Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
Jim Muncy of PoliSpace told conference attendees that Florida is trying to convince Orbital to move the program south, according to an account of his talk on Rand Simberg’s Transterrestrial Musings blog.
“You should see the list of things that Orbital wants from Florida to get them to move there from Wallops,” Muncy is quoted as saying. Simberg’s post provides no elaboration.
Continue reading ‘Will Florida Lure Orbital’s COTS Program Away from Virginia?’
